Mike Carp pitched so we might as well embrace it

There is something surreal about a position player coming in to pitch that helps you forget that your team is getting beaten down to the point that a position player is coming in to pitch. It's a rarity league-wide, never mind on a team-by-team basis, so even though the Red Sox lost miserably to the Yankees on Thursday, we got to see backup outfielder/pinch-hitter Mike Carp throw 38 pitches, not one of them a fastball.

Carp also managed to face seven batters without allowing a single hit. That makes sense. You have to actually throw pitches where bats can get to them in order to give up hits:

No strikeouts -- and just 14 strikes in 38 attempts -- with five walks allowed. Amazingly, Carp only gave up one run during all of this, on a bases-loaded walk that brought in Brett Gardner from third. It's no wonder he couldn't throw strikes when you consider he was relying on a knuckleball almost half of the time. Observe:

You probably don't need my help picking out which pitch this was in the above plot. I'm not sure if David Ross' framing or the umpires' desire to get out of this game contributed more to that being a strike, but I'm happy this moment exists because of one or both of those things.

Thankfully, MLB put video evidence of Carp on the mound online. For science, I hope.